Immigration legislation and policies

Committee:
Human Resources
status:
Some progress
Published:
In the aftermath of the pandemic, European companies are now once again able to bring personnel to Japan vital for the company, be it top management or specialists. However, the Government needs to continue to take an increasingly proactive approach to immigration policies and deregulation giving the shrinking labour market in Japan. Several sectors are currently restrained by the shortage of available labour. This holds true for both skilled labour and unskilled labour in the major urban centres as well as regional Japan. As of late, visa applications are taking significantly longer to be processed which the EBC Human Resources Committee understands is due to limited resources within the Immigration Services Agency (ISA). This means that companies have difficulties in their human resources planning leading to delays in execution of projects and, consequently, also obstacles to foreign direct investments. Moreover, an inclusive immigration policy which extends spousal visa rights to partners regardless of gender, including e.g. also same-sex couples, and eases the process is desirable.

Recommendations

  • Provide a greater level of immigration policy transparency for businesses and permanent residents.
  • Extend the scope of online visa applications and visa extensions. This would be in line with continued digitalisation of the Japanese administration and would support remote working.
  • Lower the requirement for industry experience from ten to five years for those without a university degree.
  • Formalise visa procedures for partners, regardless of gender, in marriage or equivalent relationship.
  • Continue to review concrete measures to increase the uptake of the ‘specified skills visas’ to non-high skilled workers, and their integration in the workplace and society.
  • ISA should allocate more resources to speed up visa applications.
  • Extend the scope of work visa for non-management, non-specialist jobs and ease the process to covert from student visas to non-management work visas
  • Further digitalise the process for ease of administration.
  • Exploring the use of the MyNumber system for immigration purposes: The MyNumber system can be leveraged to share information across different branches of administration for immigration purposes, such as visa renewals, status changes, and naturalization. Currently, applicants need to obtain documents from one branch such as the ward office or tax office to submit them to immigration, which can cause delays. By allowing applicants to grant, at their discretion, the immigration bureau access to information from other branches, the process would become more efficient and faster. This would increase overall efficiency and speed up the process, as processes would not be delayed due to missing documents. Considering the projected and desired increase in foreign professionals in Japan in the coming years, this would also ensure that the immigration bureau’s work load is sustainable and scalable.